My second semester of my first year of college I took Foundations of Writing class with professor, Dr. Sherry. Through out the course, we focused on the idea of what it means to be educated and to be able to write, read and interpret different information to various audiences. In my portfolio, I will be explaining the different projects and tasks we had to do to complete the 5 goals of the class. These goals helped me to become a better writer and has definitely helped me in my confidence to write better. I also learned many different techniques and how to excerpt them on paper.
GOAL A. Students will be able to compose for particular audiences and purposes.
A simpler version of this goal is that students will be able to transform information in ways that are appropriate for who is viewing it and why. To show how I learned how to complete this goal, I composed a poster that is meant for college students and keeping up with their fitness while in school. Because this poster was meant for a younger audience, I composed it in a way that would be more eye catching for them. My topic was focused on health and if people really understand what it means to be healthy.
The idea I was trying to get across to the college students was that it is very easy to gain weight and become lazy in college. I used a lot of contrast and color to appeal to the kids and make it seem as if staying in shape wasn't so hard and boring. A goal from this poster is to have kids understand the benefits of staying healthy and have them realize how easy it can be to loose yourself.
I also composed a letter to a director of Bloomsburg University asking them to introduce a nutrition major. Through out the letter, you can notice the different language used because the audience was someone of higher authority. This is a good example of composing appropriate things for different audiences. This letter is persuasive and is meant for a serious audience.
GOAL B. Students will be able to compose using language and conventions appropriate to genre.
This goal is mostly saying that students will be able to write and present using the style that is appropriate of the form. To show you how I learned this goal, I will show you my CLUE project. The CLUE project was a research paper we had to write about a topic we chose. The topic I chose was if kids in college think they are healthy and what it means to be healthy. We had to conduct a series of interviews and time diaries. The time diaries are just a log of what someone does from the time they wake up to the time they go to bed. The paper was cut into sections based on problem, background knowledge, methods, findings and a conclusion. This was set up in that fashion because it is a research paper. This completes the goal by composing a paper and using the appropriate conventions that are meant for it.
GOAL C. Students will be able to read, select, and use evidence critically to formulate and support arguments.
This goal basically states that students will be able to read and interpret findings and formulate questions and answers. For this goal, I think the best thing to talk about would be the group literature circles we did. Everyone in class was asked to pick a book and read certain sections of the book outside of class. We would then come into class and discuss what we read the nights before. At the end of the discussion we had to hand in a summary of what we talked about. The literature circles were very nice and helpful because if you didn't understand something that you read in the book, you could ask someone in your group what they thought the passage meant. This fulfills the goal very easily because we had to read the book and use evidence from the book to state what was the most important parts and why we read it in the first place.
GOAL D. Students will be able to interpret and compose in a variety of media and print/non-print genres.
A simpler version of this goal is that students will be able to read and create in multiple ways using multiple formulas. To explain this goal, I will be showing you examples of my EAR project. Through out this project we had to make a flyer, a brochure, a letter and a satire. While doing these projects, we had to keep in mind the C.R.A.P. principles. C.R.A.P. stands for contrast, repetition, alignment and proximity. I showed these principles in
the flyer and brochure mostly.
For my flyer and brochure I used a lot of contrast with the colors to capture the eyes of the readers. I used repetition with the colors to make it look nicer and in the brochure I used repetition while talking about all the benefits the course had to offer. I used alignment to line up the information to make it easier to read and more professional. Finally, I used proximity in the brochure by making sections of different information.
GOAL E. Students will be able to discuss and apply appropriate writing processes both individually and in collaborative contexts.
This final goal basically states that students will be able to discuss and revise both individual's and selves' work with learned writing skills. Through out the course, Dr. Sherry has taught us numerous writing skills that are extremely beneficial for our future writings. To show how we learned all these skills, we would have peer review sessions. Also, if we did not have a paper ready on time, during that class we would fill out an alternative worksheet that helped us finish writing our paper and really help to make us think. But if the draft was ready on time then we would look over our peer's papers and help them by saying what we think could be added or changed with in the paper. Dr. Sherry even made us make sure we said two things about the paper we liked to keep spirits up.
I really enjoyed the peer review sessions because it helped me to write better papers. The peer review sheet is very helpful as well because it takes you step by step through your paper and allows your peers to comment on what they want to.
These goals that have been set through the class have helped me become a better writer and more confident about my work. I now know how to compose things for different audiences, compose things that are appropriate to a certain genre, interpret findings, create a variety of genres, and discuss and revise my work. I thought the class was fun and not boring because it was always interactive. I think its extremely important to be able to talk to others and meet new people and this class helped me do exactly that. The group work was always fun and helpful. I liked that we were able to write about our lives and our experiences. We had much freedom in the class to be able to pick the things we wanted to write, read or do research on. I will be able to use these principles now every time I go to write a paper or create a poster.
GOAL A.
Students will be able to compose for particular audiences and purposes.
A simpler version of this goal is that students will be able to transform information in ways that are appropriate for who is viewing it and why. To show how I learned how to complete this goal, I composed a poster that is meant for college students and keeping up with their fitness while in school. Because this poster was meant for a younger audience, I composed it in a way that would be more eye catching for them. My topic was focused on health and if people really understand what it means to be healthy.
The idea I was trying to get across to the college students was that it is very easy to gain weight and become lazy in college. I used a lot of contrast and color to appeal to the kids and make it seem as if staying in shape wasn't so hard and boring. A goal from this poster is to have kids understand the benefits of staying healthy and have them realize how easy it can be to loose yourself.
I also composed a letter to a director of Bloomsburg University asking them to introduce a nutrition major. Through out the letter, you can notice the different language used because the audience was someone of higher authority. This is a good example of composing appropriate things for different audiences. This letter is persuasive and is meant for a serious audience.
GOAL B.
Students will be able to compose using language and conventions appropriate to genre.
This goal is mostly saying that students will be able to write and present using the style that is appropriate of the form. To show you how I learned this goal, I will show you my CLUE project. The CLUE project was a research paper we had to write about a topic we chose. The topic I chose was if kids in college think they are healthy and what it means to be healthy. We had to conduct a series of interviews and time diaries. The time diaries are just a log of what someone does from the time they wake up to the time they go to bed. The paper was cut into sections based on problem, background knowledge, methods, findings and a conclusion. This was set up in that fashion because it is a research paper. This completes the goal by composing a paper and using the appropriate conventions that are meant for it.
GOAL C.
Students will be able to read, select, and use evidence critically to formulate and support arguments.
This goal basically states that students will be able to read and interpret findings and formulate questions and answers. For this goal, I think the best thing to talk about would be the group literature circles we did. Everyone in class was asked to pick a book and read certain sections of the book outside of class. We would then come into class and discuss what we read the nights before. At the end of the discussion we had to hand in a summary of what we talked about. The literature circles were very nice and helpful because if you didn't understand something that you read in the book, you could ask someone in your group what they thought the passage meant. This fulfills the goal very easily because we had to read the book and use evidence from the book to state what was the most important parts and why we read it in the first place.
GOAL D.
Students will be able to interpret and compose in a variety of media and print/non-print genres.
A simpler version of this goal is that students will be able to read and create in multiple ways using multiple formulas. To explain this goal, I will be showing you examples of my EAR project. Through out this project we had to make a flyer, a brochure, a letter and a satire. While doing these projects, we had to keep in mind the C.R.A.P. principles. C.R.A.P. stands for contrast, repetition, alignment and proximity. I showed these principles in
the flyer and brochure mostly.
For my flyer and brochure I used a lot of contrast with the colors to capture the eyes of the readers. I used repetition with the colors to make it look nicer and in the brochure I used repetition while talking about all the benefits the course had to offer. I used alignment to line up the information to make it easier to read and more professional. Finally, I used proximity in the brochure by making sections of different information.
GOAL E.
Students will be able to discuss and apply appropriate writing processes both individually and in collaborative contexts.
This final goal basically states that students will be able to discuss and revise both individual's and selves' work with learned writing skills. Through out the course, Dr. Sherry has taught us numerous writing skills that are extremely beneficial for our future writings. To show how we learned all these skills, we would have peer review sessions. Also, if we did not have a paper ready on time, during that class we would fill out an alternative worksheet that helped us finish writing our paper and really help to make us think. But if the draft was ready on time then we would look over our peer's papers and help them by saying what we think could be added or changed with in the paper. Dr. Sherry even made us make sure we said two things about the paper we liked to keep spirits up.
I really enjoyed the peer review sessions because it helped me to write better papers. The peer review sheet is very helpful as well because it takes you step by step through your paper and allows your peers to comment on what they want to.
These goals that have been set through the class have helped me become a better writer and more confident about my work. I now know how to compose things for different audiences, compose things that are appropriate to a certain genre, interpret findings, create a variety of genres, and discuss and revise my work. I thought the class was fun and not boring because it was always interactive. I think its extremely important to be able to talk to others and meet new people and this class helped me do exactly that. The group work was always fun and helpful. I liked that we were able to write about our lives and our experiences. We had much freedom in the class to be able to pick the things we wanted to write, read or do research on. I will be able to use these principles now every time I go to write a paper or create a poster.